Kyrie Irving will miss most, if not all, of the coming season due to a torn ACL, which has Dallas wanting to bring in some point guard depth behind D’Angelo Russell. Specifically, the Mavericks plan to re-sign Dante Exum, who has been with the team for a couple of seasons but is now a free agent.
To make that happen, the Mavericks are waiving and stretching 2023 first-round pick Olivier-Maxence Prosper, a story broken by ESPN’s Shams Charania.
This was not a surprise. Dallas is hard-capped at the second apron and was within $1.5 million of that line, it needed to clear cap space to sign Exum, even to a veteran minimum contract. The team had tried to trade Prosper, but other teams wanted a second-round pick attached to take on his $3 million contract. Dallas could create enough space to sign Exum by waiving and stretching Prosper, spreading his $3 million over three seasons on the books.
Once Prosper clears waivers, expect the Mavericks to announce the deal with Exum.
Prosper becomes a free agent and has shown enough flashes in Dallas to garner interest from other NBA teams.